door and walked across the garden in my direction.  Scarcely ten yards away he stopped and stood still, looking steadily towards me.  I cannot describe the surge of panic which nearly overwhelmed me.  I must be discovered.  I dared not stir an inch.  My heart beat so violently that I felt sick.  But amid a tumult of emotion, reason, seated firmly on her throne, whispered, ‘Trust to the dark background.’  I remained absolutely motionless.  For a long time the man and I remained opposite each other, and every instant I expected him to spring forward.  A vague idea crossed my mind that I might silence him.  ’Hush, I am a detective.  We expect that an officer will break out here to-night.  I am waiting to catch him.’  Reason—­scornful this time—­replied:  ’Surely a Transvaal detective would speak Dutch.  Trust to the shadow.’  So I trusted, and after a spell another man came out of the house, lighted a cigar, and both he and the other walked off together.  No sooner had they turned than a cat pursued by a dog rushed into the bushes and collided with me.  The startled animal uttered a ‘miaul’ of alarm and darted back again, making a horrible rustling.  Both men stopped at once.  But it was only the cat, as they doubtless observed, and they passed out of the garden gate into the town.

I looked at my watch.  An hour had passed since I climbed the wall.  Where was my comrade?  Suddenly I heard a voice from within the quadrangle say, quite loud, ‘All up.’  I crawled back to the wall.  Two officers were walking up and down the other side jabbering Latin words, laughing and talking all manner of nonsense—­amid which I caught my name.  I risked a cough.  One of the officers immediately began to chatter alone.  The other said slowly and clearly, ’... cannot get out.  The sentry suspects.  It’s all up.  Can you get back again?’ But now all my fears fell from me at once.  To go back was impossible.  I could not hope to climb the wall unnoticed.  Fate pointed onwards.  Besides, I said to myself, ’Of course, I shall be recaptured, but I will at least have a run for my money.’  I said to the officers, ‘I shall go on alone.’

Now I was in the right mood for these undertakings—­that is to say that, thinking failure almost certain, no odds against success affected me.  All risks were less than the certainty.  A glance at the plan (p. 182) will show that the rate which led into the road was only a few yards from another sentry.  I said to myself, ‘Toujours de l’audace:’  put my hat on my head, strode into the middle of the garden, walked past the windows of the house without any attempt at concealment, and so went through the gate and turned to the left.  I passed the sentry at less than five yards.  Most of them knew me by sight.  Whether he looked at me or not I do not know, for I never turned my head.  But after walking a hundred yards and hearing no challenge, I knew that the second obstacle had been surmounted.  I was at large in Pretoria.